


Syntymäpäiväkakku

by ThoseDaysThatWill



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Fade to Black, Finnish WJC gold-medal-winning Squad, Gen, M/M, Unrepentant Fluff, Winnipeg Jets, don't ask me why Roope got in the middle of this because I don't know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-29
Updated: 2019-05-29
Packaged: 2020-03-26 15:27:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19008586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThoseDaysThatWill/pseuds/ThoseDaysThatWill
Summary: It's Ben's birthday and Sami has plans.





	Syntymäpäiväkakku

**Author's Note:**

> This is set on May 9, 2019. 
> 
> The Jets were eliminated by the Blues. Then the Stars were eliminated by the Blues. The Avalanche were eliminated by the Sharks. (The Hurricanes would start to play the Bruins that day, but they too would be eliminated.) This is all somewhat relevant. 
> 
> Katie requested it on his actual birthday, but it was so long ago, she doesn't even remember doing it.
> 
> Thank you, vatupassi, for help with the Finnish!

_She said it was fine as long as I cleaned up after myself_.

Sami kept repeating that phrase to himself as he pulled open drawers and cabinets to look for the supplies he needed. He spent as little time in the kitchen as humanly possible. Not because he didn’t like to cook, honestly he didn’t mind cooking at all, but because it was so _perfect_ and so _white,_ he was really afraid he was going to break something or stain something and she’d get mad. She was usually a very nice person and he wanted to keep it that way.

_But_ she said it would be fine, and so he had convinced himself that he could do this. But even the clattering of the heavy ceramic bowl on the marble countertops made him wince, and he’d put it down very gently. With a sigh, he pulled his phone from his pocket and opened the music app. Maybe if it felt less like a museum in there, he’d be more comfortable. He put all his music on shuffle, turned up the volume, and synched it to the speakers.

The loud and harsh guitar that came from his phone startled him. He almost hit ‘skip’ but didn’t. That song certainly wasn’t something he would have picked out himself, but his friends sent him music that _they_ liked. Sometimes he forgot that when he downloaded to his computer to listen to, it also downloaded automatically to his phone. (He had listened to it as good luck for the Stars, but it hadn’t worked.) He was fine with _some_ hard rock or whatever that was, but not all of it. It was in Finnish, though, so he let it play.

Doublechecking the recipe again, he started measuring out the ingredients. He had searched out a _traditional_ cake recipe specifically. Growing up, he always liked the kind of cake his mother had made for his birthday. It was fluffy and had fruit on it, but he’d never seen anyone have that kind of cake for a birthday here in Canada, so he had googled. He’d gotten _a lot_ better about reading English over the season. He only had to look up a few words. He didn’t bother reading the blog-like posts before the recipes after the first one when he realized had nothing to do at all with actually making the cake. The problem was that if you googled “Canadian cake” you got a lot of red and white (one with a leaf pattern baked right into the cake) and something called “ketchup cake” that he was afraid to click on. Eventually he found one that looked right.

When the music switched to a JVG song, he started singing along under his breath. He didn’t even really realize that he was singing, but their songs were too catchy to just leave alone. His focus was on carefully matching the labels to the recipe. Some of the specific words didn’t make any sense, like what ‘granulated’ sugar was. He wasn’t sure what other kinds of sugar there _were_ , honestly. He was also trying not to complain (even in his own head) about the measuring system with fractions and whatever else was going on there, he just kept matching everything the back to the recipe. Things _seemed_ to be in the right proportions, and it _looked_ like cake batter, so he didn’t question too much.

After he put both pans in the oven, he took to washing the dishes. He knew she had told him that _some_ things could go in the dishwasher, and _some_ things couldn’t, but he couldn’t remember for the life of him which was which, so he just hand-washed everything. By this time, he was actively singing along with the music, but it was _impossible_ to do otherwise when his music went from “Old Town Road” (which had originally come from a Dallas friend, but _everyone_ was listening to now) to “Toxic”. Besides, he was _positive_ he was home alone, so he wasn’t going to get caught (this time). His voice wasn’t _bad,_ but he didn’t like an audience.

He had thought about making the frosting, too, but in the end the lure of one that had sprinkles already in it won out and he bought it. From the recipe pictures, Canadian birthday cake wasn’t supposed to have fruit on it, so he bought decorations made out of sugar to put on the top instead. He wasn’t completely incompetent in the kitchen, but truth be told, he’d never baked a whole cake from scratch before. But he wanted to, and he didn’t want to have to ask anyone for help. Being a fully functioning competent adult, this was something he could do. He set the kitchen timer for twenty-five minutes and wandered into the living room.

Ben had taken the dogs out for a run and Jacqueline was out probably buying more pink things. The whole house was empty, and it was weirdly quiet, even with the music still playing from the kitchen. He had gotten used to never being alone, and now that he was, he didn’t like it. He wasn’t looking forward to the possibly of next season being like this _at all_. No, he wouldn’t think about that yet. There was no point to it. He flipped the TV on. It was still on the channel that had shown the Sharks, Avalanche game from last night. They’d watched to see who they’d be cheering on to beat the Blues and he hadn’t liked the answer. He pressed mute and dropped onto the couch.

He disconnected his phone from the kitchen speakers and shut the music off. The silence grew louder as he stared at the screen. He had a few voicemails that he hadn’t listened to, and a few more that he knew he had to return. Juho probably should have been the first one he called back, but if his brother had anything important to say, he’d text. That was true of most of his friends, too, which is why he didn’t feel bad about not answering them when they called.

The phone rang a few times before a scratchy voice answered in Finnish, “I should have let it go to voicemail.”

Sami laughed, responding in his first language as well, “You could have, I wouldn’t leave as mean of a message as you did.”

“That wasn’t mean,” Roope groaned a little as if he was sitting up, “What time is it?”

“I’ll start by saying it’s Thursday. Do you need me to be more specific?” Sami asked with a grin in his voice.

“Fuck you.” He groaned again, probably standing up. Sami could hear the sound of a door closing and Roope’s voice got a little louder, “Why are you calling me at this hour?”

“It’s noon.” Sami pointed out.

“ _There._ ” Roope paused, “Uh. Where are you?”

Sami laughed, “Still in Canada. If I was home, noon would be some crazy hour of the morning where you are.”

“It’s _not_ some crazy hour of the morning?” There was the sound of liquid being poured in the background, and Sami hoped it was coffee.

“I _told_ you, it’s noon. In Texas.” He bit his lip until he was sure he wasn’t going to laugh again. The Stars had just been eliminated; it wasn’t fair to laugh at him. And he didn’t mean it that way anyway. “Rough day yesterday?”

Roope groaned, “We flew back in the morning. And then we drank. And… I don’t think I remember anything else after that.”

“How’s your foot?” Sami asked, sincerely.

“Uh, _fractured_. But only a little. It’s fine. I can walk.” He took a long drink of something.

Sami paused a minute, then asked, “So… should I guess who is there, or are you going to tell me? I know you completed as much of the Stars set as you could without more death threats. So, who is left? You wouldn’t pick up a _Blue,_ would you?”

“I’m not telling you _anything_ , you suck.” There was no anger in his tone, that was just how he was.

Sami sighed. He was used to it. “Why do I suck _this_ time?”

“Usual reason. You ruined my national team set.” Roope’s voice sounded like he was flipping him off, even if he couldn’t see it. “All this time, I wondered if you were straight or something weird like that. No, I just wasn’t _Canadian_ enough for you. Who knew you got off to _English?_ ”

Sami scoffed. The argument started off as it had for _years_. He was one of the very few on their Gold Medal winning team that Roope couldn’t seduce. And it frustrated him to no end. But _now_ Sami had someone. Someone he could use to point out he wasn’t any kind of _weird,_ he was just _picky_. Now, he didn’t mind the argument as much as he used to. “I get off to my _boyfriend_ trying to speak Finnish.”

Roope groaned, “He does that? Well, you still have one up on what Esa’s got. Try listening to bad Finnish with a _Swedish_ accent. It’s painful. At least he won’t be around much. When you bring your boy home, tell him to stick to English.”

There was silence for a moment and then Sami spoke, “I’m not coming home this summer.”

Roope sat up abruptly and made a sound the matched, “ _What?_ I know you’re new to the whole couple thing, but you’re supposed to _split_ the summer. Half there, half home where things make _sense_.”  

 Sami sighed, “No, the baby is coming in July.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that.” Roope made a shaking his head sound, “I can’t believe you’re having a _baby_. That’s crazy. _You,_ out of all of us. I thought maybe when Patrik was going through his Daddy phase--”

Sami cut him off, “You are _not_ allowed to use that phrase for that any more. First, because you _saw_ what happened with Juuse in Nashville. _That_ is a Daddy phase. And second, because if you were a Jet, you’d sleep with Blake and we all know it.”

Roope was silent for a moment, “Okay, fair.” Sami laughed, but before he could reply, Roope continued, “Though you have no room to talk, you picked a daddy yourself.”

He scoffed, “Five years doesn’t make a daddy. If it did, it means _you’ve_ slept with grandpas.”

Roope made a shrugging sound, “Yeah, maybe. But as compared to me, you’re pure and innocent. I always thought you were the type that would have married the first guy they slept with in juniors. Or well, you _were_ until that Canadian.”

Sami didn’t say anything. He hadn’t said specifically that he hadn’t slept around back home. Hanging with the guys, he listened to their stories and laughed along with them, but never shared his own. They took it that he was just private about it, and they didn’t push. They were usually too busy talking about their own exploits to notice anyway. When he started talking about sex after he started dating Ben, they just blamed ‘the Canadian’ for changing him. He had, but not how they assumed.

“Speaking of that… I always wanted to ask you something.” Roope’s voice sounded like his smirk looked. “Did you and—”

Sami cut him off, “I have to go, the timer is beeping.”

Roope scoffed, “Timer for what?”

“My cake. Today is Ben’s birthday.” Sami headed into the kitchen, knowing that it wasn’t going to be so easy to get Roope off the phone. That might have had something to do with why he hadn’t picked up when he called earlier.

He snickered, “That’s _domestic_ of you.”

Sami sighed, “People do _nice_ things for people they love. Speaking of that, did you call Sepe?”

There was silence on the other side of the line for a moment. “No.”

He groaned, “Why not? I texted him luck and he’s not my… whatever he is to you.”

“ _Friend._ And last I checked, he _is_.” Roope’s tone was tight and short, so Sami knew he hit a nerve.

He laughed, “He’s not _my_ friend the way he’s _your_ friend.”

Roope rolled his eyes verbally, “Only because you were stupid enough to turn him down. You _could_ have. If you weren’t going to do me, you could have at least done him. How are you _that_ blind?”

“Oh my god, Roope, I am not having this conversation _again_. Just go call him. I need to deal with my cake. You can call me back _if_ you call him.” Sami put his phone the counter and hit the ‘speaker’ button. He needed both hands to take the cakes out and he knew he wasn’t getting out of the call that easy.

After a moment of silence, Roope asked, “Did you text _me_ luck?”

Sami scoffed, “Of course I did. I told you to kick their asses for us.”

He sighed, “Oh, yeah. We tried.”

“Yeah, I know.” Sami sighed, too. “I wanted the Avs to win last night. Mikko could have avenged us. I know a guy that’s Shark _property_ , but that doesn’t count.”

Roope scoffed, “Doesn’t matter, Sepe can do it later.”

Sami had to pause at the tone of his voice. He couldn’t point it out, because Roope wouldn’t listen. But they all talked about it behind their backs. He said his name differently than he said all of theirs. They all noticed. He wondered if even Sebastian noticed. But he wouldn’t point it out either, because he did the same thing and denied it the same way. “Yeah, of course. You could tell him _that_.”

He sighed, “Okay, okay, I’ll call him.”

“Good.” Sami’s focus was on trying to figure out where he was going to put the hot cake pans. He’d done the toothpick test and they seemed ready, but he’d forgotten to get the cooling racks out before he pulled the first one out of the oven. With a sigh, he put it down on the stove and turned to the cabinet, “Where is that stupid thing?”

“What thing?” Roope asked.

Sami grunted and yanked the metal rack free. A few cutting boards hit the ground along with it and he cursed. They didn’t look broken though. He knew she had glass cutting boards (which made no sense to him) but thankfully those weren’t them. He shoved them back in where they belonged and set the rack on the island. It wasn’t quite big enough for both pans, but somehow, he made them fit for at least long enough to get them out of the oven. He was beginning to understand _why_ he had never done this before.

Just as he was about to turn back to the cabinet to see if he could find another rack, his bare hand brushed along the side of the pan. “ _Fuck, fuck, fuck!_ ” He yanked it away, but it was too late. “Fucking fuck!” He quickly shoved his hand under the faucet, but not even cold water helped. The burn was a bright angry red blotch on the side of his hand. “Fucking _ow_.”

“Well, _that_ was colorful.” Not only did that voice _not_ come from the phone, but it was _English._

Sami turned around so fast his wet hand sent a spray of water across the kitchen. Ben was leaning against the pillar between the kitchen and the living room, arms crossed, with _that_ smirk on his face. That smirk usually drove Sami absolutely _insane_. But today he was _already_ insane, between the museum kitchen, the recipe in English, and the phone call. He didn’t need more of it.

Sami narrowed his eyes at him, the pain in his hand blanked out the clear need to switch languages, so he didn’t. “Mene ulos!"

Ben didn’t lose even a bit of the smirk, “I would ask where you just told me to go, but I’m afraid you’d tell me.” He took a couple steps closer, “I _was_ going to stay in the yard with the girls, but I hear ‘vittu, vittu, vittu’ from in here, so I had to come check on you. Are you okay?”

Sami put his non-injured hand on his hip and glared but said nothing. Ben walked around the island, closer to him, and took Sami’s wet hand in both of his, “That looks like it hurt.”

Sami sighed, the gesture calming his little flash of temper, “It did!”

Ben moved closer to him, leaning down to kiss the side of his hand that was not burned, “Does that help?”

Sami’s cheeks flushed, but it wasn’t embarrassment this time. He nodded with a small smile, “That _does_ help. But you should kiss my _lips_ instead. I think that would help a _lot_ more.”

Ben laughed, “You think so, eh?” He slipped his arms around Sami’s waist, pulling him closer, “I think I could handle that.” He leaned in to capture his mouth, smiling when he heard Sami’s low moan.

Sami slid his hand into Ben’s hair, encouraging him closer, to pin him against the counter. He eagerly returned the kiss, always aware that he could want this memory to look back on later.

After a while, Ben pulled back just a bit, “ _Bedroom_. Now.”

Sami was about to respond when a voice came from the counter, “You couldn’t get it on in the _kitchen_ so I could hear?”

If Ben was embarrassed, he didn’t show it. Sami wasn’t so fortunate. He jumped at the voice and the sound that came out of him might have, unflatteringly, been called a squeak. He blushed even darker red and turned to bury his face in Ben’s neck, “I forgot about him.”

Ben glanced over to the phone and rolled his eyes, “Hei, Roope.” He wrapped his arms tighter around Sami, a hand sliding up into his hair, petting him reassuringly.

“I don’t want _hei_ , I want to listen.” Roope’s laugh almost took over his ability to English.

Ben scoffed, “Don’t _you_ have a boyfriend you could listen to?”

Sami winced, but said nothing, glad he couldn’t see the glare Roope was giving him across the miles. He had told Ben all about what was going on with his friends every time he got off the phone with them. He may or may not have cared, but he always listened. Sami hadn’t used the word ‘boyfriend’, but at the same time, he had probably implied it. Maybe _heavily_ implied it after he spent too long on the phone with one of them again and Ben gave him a cold reception. Of course, none of them were a threat to him (Sami could have had any of them years ago and didn’t) but there was nothing wrong with a little reassurance.  

“Did he tell you that?” Roope scoffed, “He _lies_ so you won’t be jealous when I hit on him.”

Sami pulled back enough to look at Ben, “He is supposed to be calling Sebastian, because he has playoffs, but he is afraid to. He thinks if you are nice to someone, it means they will marry you maybe. He is afraid of _that_.”

There was silence from the phone for a long moment. “Haista vittu.”

Sami laughed, “Ei.”

Ben shook his head. He leaned in to kiss the side of Sami’s neck, murmuring, “Say bye to Roope.”

Sami closed his eyes, tipping his head to the side to encourage those kisses, “Mmm, bye, Roope. Call Sepe.” He swatted blindly at the phone, hoping to hit the call end button, but not really caring if he missed. His hands went back to Ben as soon as he could, slipping up under his shirt. “You are distracting me from what I was doing.”

Ben laughed, a low rumble against the side of his neck that set nearly every one of Sami’s nerve endings on fire, “It’s my birthday. I can do _whatever_ I want.”

“Maybe.” Sami was struggling to form coherent thoughts against the sensation of Ben sucking on the side of his neck, “So I get to in… in…” For the life of him, he couldn’t remember the English name for the month. “Lokakuussa?”

“Mmm… you get what you want all the time.” Ben pointed out with another low chuckle. He was doing it on purpose and Sami knew that. He also knew he was powerless to stop it, even if he wanted to. Which, of course, he didn’t.

He smiled, “Because you _spoil_ me. I am going to spoil you today.”

“Then why aren’t you already naked in our bed?” Ben pulled away just enough for Sami to see the smirk on his lips and the _look_ in his eyes. He shivered.

“ _Rakas,_ stop it. I made you…” His English was strong and for the most part this didn’t happen, but for _some_ reason today his vocabulary was failing him. He _knew_ the words, he just couldn’t think of them. In his defense, his brain was nearly a puddle. “I made you syntymäpäiväkakku.”

Ben started to say something and then stopped, “Did I hear _cake_? You made me a cake?”

“Yes, that is the—wait, you know the Finnish for _cake_?” Sami tipped his head and looked at him curiously.

Ben shrugged, “That program uses all kinds of random words. I still can’t make a sentence.”

He leaned in and kissed his cheek, “I love that you try.” He turned a little towards the counter where the two cakes were cooling in their pans, “I didn’t want you to see the cake until it was done.”

Ben never took his eyes off Sami, “I could help you with it.”

Sami shook his head, “Go play with the girls. I’ll be ready in half hour.”

“I’m being kicked out of my own house on my own _birthday_.” Ben gave him his most pitiful look, which really was _quite_ pitiful, but he couldn’t hold it very long before he started to laugh. “I _should_ get to be wherever I want to be on my _birthday_.”

Sami huffed, “ _Fine,_ you can stay but you have to sit there. And not touch.” He pointed to the bar stool on the other side of the island.

Ben took his seat and folded his hands on the counter, “See, I’m behaving.”

Sami shook his head again. He did that a lot with Ben, but honestly one of his favorite things about him was how exasperating he was. He was always pushing the limit and testing his boundaries, and because of that, he found he had fewer and fewer limits and boundaries with him. And he liked it that way.

He put his focus on turning the cake pans over and was happy to see them both slide out without any issues. He didn’t know how much she paid for those pans, but it was completely worth it. It wasn’t until he’d spread the frosting over half of what would become the middle that Ben spoke up.

“Am I allowed to ask questions?”

Sami laughed, “You can talk, you just can’t touch.”

“Why didn’t you just _buy_ a cake?” He asked.

Ben’s eyes were following Sami’s hands and he knew it. For his part, he tried to keep his focus on what he was doing but knowing that Ben was watching him so intently made him blush. “Because I wanted to make it.” He bit his bottom lip, trying to make sure that the frosting was as even as he could possibly make it without the cake falling apart. He had already seen some crumbs fall on one edge, but he’d played it cool so Ben wouldn’t notice. It was very silly of him, he understood, but he did it all the same. It wasn’t that he _needed_ to impress Ben, but he _wanted_ to.

Ben was silent for a long moment, just watching him. Then he asked, “What did Roope call for?”

Sami shrugged, “I was calling him back because he left a message. Mostly it was just talking about the same thing we always do.”

“ _Himself_.” Ben rolled his eyes.

Sami snickered, “Well… yeah. But I told him I was not going home this summer.”

“How did he take that? Did I miss him crying over it?” Ben smirked.

Sami scoffed, “They won’t really miss me too much. I don’t do a lot of talking. But it was nice that Roope was mad about it for a minute.”

Ben fell silent, just watching him assemble the layers of the cake. Sami did everything he could to keep his eyes on what he was doing, but every so often, he’d glance over to him. Frosting the sides of the cake wasn’t easy. The sides kept crumbling and mixing in with the icing, which clung in some places and fell off in others. He growled when a whole portion of cake came off when he moved the knife away. He heard Ben barely contain a laugh and shot him a glare.

“You could have bought it.” He said, before biting his lip.

Sami glared at him again, “I was _trying_ to do it _myself_.” He held up a hand that was now covered in frosting, “I didn’t know it was this hard to do!”

“If you had told me your plan, I could have helped you.” Ben barely managed to get all the words out through the laugh he was holding back.

“Oh, you think so? Come here and do it then. _Show_ _me_.” There weren’t notes of a challenge in his voice, there was a whole symphony.

Ben got up and moved around the island, “Well, I don’t think I save _that_ cake.”

Sami went to put his hands on his hips but thought better of it. Instead, before Ben could move out of the way, Sami put his hands on Ben’s cheeks, transferring as much of the frosting mess as he possibly could. “There! Now you is a cake!”

Ben just sighed, “I knew you were going to do that. And I came over here _anyway_ to help you. See what I get? _Frosted_.” He scooped out a blob of frosting from the container with his finger and advanced on Sami.

Seeing that coming from a mile away, Sami quickly back up, but found himself running out of real estate. Abruptly the wall met his back and he was trapped. He adamantly shook his head, but Ben only flashed a grin before smearing the frosting on any part of Sami’s face that he could catch. “If you had just stayed still, it would have only been your nose, but now you’ve got it all over.” Ben laughed.

Sami gave him an indignant look, “I was trying to do something nice! Look what I get!”

That only made Ben laugh more, “That is true. How about if I help you clean up?” He slid a hand to the back of Sami’s neck and leaned in to lick the frosting from his cheek.

The gesture surprised Sami and he gasped, letting his eyes close, “ _Oh_. That… helps.”

Ben’s laugh was low and dangerous, “Looks like I got more here.” He moved his hand from his neck, and quickly took to licking and sucking on the frosted skin there.

Sami wrapped his arms around him, no longer caring about the mess, “Mmm, rakas, _lisää_ …”

Ben smirked, “Hmm, I wonder where else I can get frosting…”


End file.
